Juana Azurduy [English translation]

Juana Azurduy1

flower of High Peru2

there is no other captain

more valiant than you.

I hear your voice

beyond Jujuy3

and your daring cavalry charge4

lady Juana Azurduy.

My not-yet country made me love it,

without sleep I cross over its land;

the Spaniard will not pass,

he will have to fight against women.

Juana Azurduy,

flower of High Peru,

there is no captain

more valiant than you.

The canon roars

lend me your rifle

so that the revolution

comes smelling of jazmin5.

Land of the sun

in High Peru,

the echo names

even Túpac Amaru6

Land under arms which a woman makes for herself,

amazon of liberty,

I want to line up in your squadron

and, to the clarion call of your voice,

attack.

The canon roars,

- lend me your rifle -

so that the revolution

comes smelling of jazmin.

1. South American fighter in the revolutionary wars against Spain, who fought for independence in what is now Bolivia (where a province is named after her) from 1809 to 1818 and in Argentina (which appointed her from 1818 to 1825 - she reached very high rank in the revolutionary armies, ending up as a regimatal commander (Colonel?) in Bolivia and commander (roughly equivalent to modern Lietenant General?) of the Northern Army of the united revolutionary forces of the Rio de la Plata Vice-Royalty in Argentina (which appointed her Generalof teh Argentine Army some 147 years after her death)2. Alto Perú was a fairly large region (6 provinces) originally of the Vice-Royalty of Peru but shifted during a reorganisation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas to the new Vice-Royalty of the Rio de la Plata3. capital of the Bolivian province named after J.U.4. March 1816, after taking the main silver mines from the Spanish she led a charge against their forces and routed them, capturing their regimental standard 5. The female soldiers will be armed ("lend me your rifle") and and at this time of year will have been given jasmin6. the last native Sapa Inca (Emperor) of Peru, who was executed by the Spanish in 1572 for rebellion, although Spain had recognised Peru as an indenepndant kingdom; this made Spain very unpopular in Peru, and led to four decades of war which the Spanish won; after another 180 years, another 40 years of war of war with a descendant also called Tupac Amaru as one of its leaders, led to the independence of moder Peru in 1821 and of what was left of Alto Perú as modern Bolivia in 1825.

• Artist:Mercedes Sosa
• Album:Mujeres argentinas (1968)